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Our Projects

National Health, Wellness & Learning Center

Scientist in Residence Program at CS55

After School Program at CS55

Food For Others Garden

We Grow Vegetables... and Students

One student at a time, one classroom at a time, one school at a time.

Mission

Green Bronx Machine builds healthy, equitable, and resilient communities through inspired education, local food systems, and 21st Century workforce development. Dedicated to cultivating minds and harvesting hope, our school-based model using urban agriculture aligned to key school performance indicators grows healthy students and healthy schools to transform communities that are fragmented and marginalized into neighborhoods that are inclusive and thriving.

Vision

We believe that healthy students help drive healthy schools, and that healthy schools are at the heart of healthy communities. We envision growing healthy communities where those who are "apart from" will become "part of" new solutions that benefit 100% of society; a world where people do not have to leave their community to live, learn and earn in a better one. Together, we can grow something greater! Ready, set, GROW!

% Food Insecurity

for residents of the South Bronx

% Child Poverty

rate in the South Bronx

% Attendance

at our school. Increased from 40%

% passing rates

at our high-school program on NYS Exams

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Green Bronx Machine Mobile Classroom Kitchen

LATEST NEWS

Atlanta, Georgia: On June 16, 2018, the long-running Sustainability Television Program Growing a Greener World® received a Daytime Emmy Award® for its breakthrough episode The Green Bronx Machine. This is the broadcast’s first Emmy win. The honor comes on the heels of Growing a Greener World receiving the coveted 2017 Pioneer Taste Award® in April. The Mission of[…]

With results like these and waitlists of children to serve, now more than ever we need your support! We remain a volunteer program and are seeking funds to hire two local dedicated after school tutors – academic specialists so we can bridge the performance gap for our students. Given increasing costs, providing children & families[…]

Our after-school program held in the National Health Wellness & Learning Center is making epic happen daily! Serving the most at-risk children in the school from 2:30 – 5 PM daily, we: have helped solve 1,914 math problems analyzed 514 reading passages completed 272 outstanding assignments and cooked 26 gourmet meals from scratch including our signature[…]

Input equals output! Last week we fed all 750+ students in the school a healthy, locally grown meal via our School Garden to School Cafeteria Program. Clean plates and healthy smiles are our signature, but most importantly as these pictures show, the children LOVED the meal eating healthy food across the rainbow. Attendance at the school is[…]

October 4, 2017: Green Bronx Machine, the non-profit organization building healthy, equitable, and resilient communities through inspired education, local food systems, and 21st Century workforce development, has been announced by global education non-profit HundrED, as one of its 100 innovative education projects across the world, all of which have been gathered over the past two[…]

As we are well into Back to School mode, we just wanted to catch you up on our amazing summer, powered by Sodexo! Over six weeks, our scholars: Logged 5,579,532 steps Rescued 1,769 meals Acquired 108 new vocabulary words Wrote over 100 letters to people, businesses, and visitors Grew over 5,000 pounds of vegetables –[…]

We were so honored to feature our experience, strength, and hope to grow something greater in the beautiful city of Atlanta where El Capitan talked about what it meant to be Georgia Grown, keynoting the first ever Aglanta Conference to a standing ovation and speaking to a focus group at MODA – Museum of Design[…]

Our National Health Wellness & Learning Center continues to attract visitors and attention from around the world and around New York City. Last week we hosted Ms. Negrelli’s class all the way from Coney Island! Her class learned about us via the internet and came for a day of lessons, full STEAM ahead! During our[…]

We’re determined to prevent the summer slide! While summer is a time to farm, get outside, and have fun – we also need to remember that learning and reading should never stop! According to Scholastic: During the school year, lower income children’s skills improve at close to the same rate as those of their more[…]

We are so proud that our Founder, Stephen “El Capitan” Ritz, is releasing his book with Rodale: The Power Of A Plant. The book, co-written with friend and colleague Suzie Boss, highlights his odyssey of teaching in the Bronx dating back to 1984 and details the birth, genesis and evolution of Green Bronx Machine. True[…]

Winter is here – and our school is under scaffolding – BUT, thanks to Macy’s and our favorite Santa’s Helpers, we were blessed to turn our scaffolding into an amazing Winter Wonderland that has become the Pride of CS 55 and a source of inspiration for all of Claremont Village. On the coldest day of[…]